PaulH said:
Given that you are proceeding into a discussion about them why exactly shouldn't they have strict set of rules? But perhaps you're right ... I did come off as hostile and for that I apologize. Just been a bad day, but that's no excuse.
Look, for the 'crazies' I think most of them are normal people living their lives. It's just that the internet is a nice way to talk about various problems with people. Given that trans people don;t tend to have the easiest of existences, the two kind of mesh together. It's pretty frightening actually, and some of it sounds crazy though it has a basis in reality. Like for instance, being afraid to report a crime inflicted upon you to the police, because you'll likely be treated with further abuse? Being made homeless for it? Denied housing? Denied employment? Mistreated in hospitals?
It adds up. It might seem crazy, but when you face ingrained prejudices EVERYDAY, somebody making fun of you for simply being trans, rather than some aspects of it which might actually be witty, but just simply being? Well ... sorry, calling it 'bullying' seems adequate, whether you like it or not. People are better than that, and criticism of it, whether it be targetting sexuality, race, or for being trans, is deserved.
Which is why we no longer have portrayals of black people like Hattie McDaniel's Mammy from Gone with the Wind. Because people became better than that. And yes, that requires fierce opposition. That requires loud opposition. Nobody had their rights won by being silent. So you call it crazy, I see analogues to any civil rights movement in history. Loud wins over a quiet little corner of the internet.
Also. I didn't call you cis-scum, or garbage, I said that if you don't treat a person with respect they have no reason to treat your opinion with respect. Who's putting whose words in their mouths?
(Edit) Oh, and for the record ... I didn't piss on Ace Ventura. I said it was a 'product of its time and place' ...
You put it in your last sentence in that post, it was a joke...Like again I have to question if people take the internet too seriously anymore.
But sure, vocal opposition changes stuff. Doesn't mean that the vocal opposition could easily do more harm and go way too far. My mother's still got a bit of a thing when it comes to Malcom X where she just shivers a bit because he terrified her as a kid.
And guidelines should be expected, but strict rules? Sorry, but the idea of educating the ignorant runs against the strict rule setup. You are going to get stupid questions when people don't know all you do. And going so far as to start insulting and declaring you an enemy to transpersonhood because of that and refusing to answer questions that you haven't approved? Way too far and sorta not what understanding should be about. For the record, that is something I've actually been accused of by some crazies, so please don't tell me that it's just a case of the internet warping perception. People take things far too seriously and apparently forget how to laugh when they get on.
But again, acting paranoid constantly is not healthy at all. Just because you MIGHT have something like that happen to you is not grounds for acting like it already did that day and taking it out on the people you are saying you want to help understand. And I have to say, where do you all live that you have to live the way you seem to have to? Most people I meet I can bet you either don't know anything about trans, or don't care enough to bring it up, much less make fun of.
As for your martial art question, there's a couple of things you could check out, TaeKwonDo is probably the easiest you can find(I know there's like six courses around where I live done by different people), but is largely more like a competitive sport and fitness routine than fully practical unless you get decently advanced in most situations you'd probably be in around bars.
Krav Maga is also a decent technique you can probably find at least one in pretty much any city you're in anymore given how popular it's become, but has a bit of emphasis on fully incapacitating someone normally by way of breaking bones and injuring the more sensitive parts of a person's body as soon as possible, so may not be the one you're looking for since you said you were looking to not get sued.
Personally I'd advocate for alot of the Southern Chinese styles, alot of them are based in self-defense scenarios historically. But the two I know the most about are HungGa and Win-Chung(I may be remembering this name wrong). Krav Maga is sorta a mix of bastardization and descendent of a couple of these styles. Bonus too, since both have somewhat popular visual aids for what it sorta looks like.
The former is essentially Earth-Bending(as in, the animations in Avatar were based on this one), alot of emphasis on having solid footing and having strikes hit with the full strength of your body as opposed to most that have you just using your leg or arm mostly with origination coming from elsewhere. One of the most versatile styles if I remember right, lots of "strong" blocks and hits that hit with the full force, but not a huge amount of grappling since that normally screws your footing up. Ok, I sorta lie, the grappling they do have is more like grabbing their arms and head, holding them, and then going to town on their abdomen and kidneys if you have a free arm. Or just grabbing an overextended appendage and getting them off their footing to again go to town on their abdomen and kidneys.
Also a VERY good fitness routine, considering alot of early training is based on building core strength and stability and the liberal use of weighted rings on arms by just standing in the forms for minutes on end, stretching, and then switching to a new form. This obviously speeds up as you progress, though the rings get a bit heavier. If nothing else, I'd advise you learning some of the basic forms and techniques if you want to build strength for any other things you do.
Win-Chung(again, I may be telling you the wrong name, sorry.) is essentially what they use in Arrow alot of the time, heavily defensive style with a few kicks. Mostly focused on angled blocking and dodges to dissipate a hit's strength and basically having your opponent wear themselves out on you or just screw up entirely because they tried to hit you too hard and overbalanced, meaning you can go in for a nasty little strike.
Two problems though. The first is me, I'm a few years out of date, the guy I started Hung Ga with died a few years ago, and before that, I sorta had to stop because I've had one knee constantly injured by random things throughout my life, and it eventually is going to stop working because of them, so I had to heavily tone down what I did and I could easily be remembering this wrong. The second is that both of these are going to be sorta rare to find outside of major port cities I think, in the U.S. at least, I don't know where you live. Neither are immensely popular, but they get the job done and allow you to fight in decently small spaces. And as Kyuubi has said, Judo is ok as well, but still requires a substantial amount of upper body strength and needs a bit of space to use to the fullest extent, like, more than you'd expect, which you say you're lacking.
0takuMetalhead said:
PaulH said:
seeing them as higher risk of assault which, well ... unfortunately goes without saying.
One of many reasons why I prefer wearing steel-toed boots when outside, even if it is a grey area according to the law when used outside construction zones.
Last I knew it was just if they were hidden steel toes outside of construction(though they lead to alot of severed toes as opposed to crushed feet so I'm not sure what the point is for them). So long as you can see them, it's not a big problem in terms of "hidden weapon" potential.
OT: So exactly what is your personal thoughts on transgenders(pre-op, transexual, whatever the correct word is for the ones that still their original junk) asking out straight, "normal", people and getting rejected once it comes to light? Transphobic or just sorta being a straight person and wanting genitals that don't look like their own? In addition, should a person feel obligated(wrong word, but I think I'm getting the idea out, just got off work, sorry) to date a transperson they have no sexual interest in because of the above because they're a "real" woman(not trying to be a dick here, just trying to be clear and differentiate) and there's not a substantial difference?
And my question from earlier, when do you think a transperson should "come out", in terms of age and pretending we live in the ideal world for trans persons, and what events lead up to it to hint and convince the person or if there is any indication you know of personally that would mean someone essentially just going through a phase and not actually trans? Vice versa goes without saying I think.